How to choose an engineering college – 11 points to make the right choice

   

How to choose an engineering college -11 points to make the right choice- Its that time of the year when after 12th you need to choose if you want medicine, architecture or engineering. You need to choose the right engineering college and those opting for M.B.B.S will be burdened with easy to grasp”quantity” study.

Also those applying for engineering will be faced with  challenging Math and Mechanics quality study to try and pass easily where you need to understand concepts and not only “ratta”.

Of course each of the 8 semesters will have 1 subject where you can “ratta”, but that too difficult. So if you are up to the challenge, and decide to spend the next 4-6 years of your life here, you better learn how to choose an engineering college first.

+Read how to choose the best engineering branch

I am writing this as an ex-student, not as a professor, counselor etc.”engineer perspective”..i wont talk of infrastructure or career placements or good faculty, i will talk about what really matters and what will actually help you to get through your 4 years smoothly, because it is one hell of a rough ride. Engineering is EXTREMELY difficult,(not trying to scare anyone) but it is a fact, and checking into a college that makes things easy for you instead of complicating it further will be of great benefit.

Before you go for the CAP rounds or any admission rounds in your respective states, it doesn’t hurt to do a little research,talk to current students of a few colleges if you can, to give you an idea of campus life and more or less opt which colleges to apply for and which to avoid.

At the time of admission, you are sitting in a room with a giant screen in front of you showing the seats getting filled up live, you can sometimes see your favorite college getting full, and you disappointed. Its a very tense,fast moving atmosphere and you too have to act quickly,depending on your merit you will be allotted a seat, but if you did some homework before you will be prepared.

I suggest going through the previous years CAP round results to give you a brief understanding of where you might get your seat. The cut off marks fluctuate 10-20% so you can still make a good analysis. You shouldn’t go into the admission hall and choose the wrong college or stream and regret it later.

How to choose an engineering college

1.LOCATION and PROXIMITY

The best (worst)experience of this is my own. I went alone for the admission rounds without any family or friend, no one to guide me, nor any good article like this to help me.

What i wanted–I really wanted Computer stream as i was obsessed with Computers since i was a kid, I also wanted it near my place of residence at South Mumbai so the commute wouldn’t be hectic.

What i got– I ended up with electrical engineering in Navi mumbai (new bombay), which was 3 hours travel for me everyday,it turned my life upside down and in every semester i was doing an average of 45% attendance instead of 75%.

Because i stayed far,there were times where i had to give fresh and KT papers one after another on consecutive days.By the time i reached home i barely had enough of time to brush up on the next days paper as i was so tired from the travel.Now if you are thinking it would be better to stay in a hostel, think not,its a lousy atmosphere and not much studying can be done there.Unless you are from another state, don’t think about a hostel or PG accomodation.

How to choose an engineering college

2.STAFF  (PROFS, LAB ASSISTANTS)

The single most important reason on my list.I am not talking about how to check how many PHds or Mtechs or big professors with big degrees are there on the faculty or how well they can teach.

The only thing that matters is how good they are with respect to-

1.How much they will allow your attendance to drop before getting u into trouble

2.How easily they will accept your submission without making you run around after them

3.How easily and leniently they will do paper correction,as 6 out of 8 semesters are checked internally

4.How easily they let you go through practicals and viva.

5.How easily they are invigilating during exams.

In my experience as stated before, i had less than 50% in all semesters without any problem,except twice in F.E and S.E where my parents were called.Submission-once in F.E two profs weren’t accepting my file for submission,rest all semesters were OK)

I want to put a quick note to never underestimate lab assistants. They maybe not on the level of profs and lecturers, but they can help you immensely in practicals,exams etc. They could be a difference between a pass and an ATKT. Make them your best friends.

3.How to choose an engineering college – STREAM VS COLLEGE

One important factor while trying to zero in on a possible college is to first check and ask yourself what stream you have in mind either COMPUTERS, I.T, EXTC etc. Remember to have at least three options if your score is less than 75%

. IF you have a better score, obviously you have a better chance at getting what you want. I believe that each of us have a favorite stream that we want, but some maybe disappointed if due to a lower composite score they get another stream or if they get their favorite stream it will be in a far away college.

Here is a few things to consider.All these colleges all fall under the affiliation of the same state University, hence upto a certain level they all have equal weight-age. There maybe some accreditation/ rating, which may give them higher and lower grades, but that isn’t of much consequence because when you go for a job, as 95% of the companies hiring you will only look at what University you did your degree from and maybe your final year score. Chances are they wont even know the names of more than 5-6 colleges, so if you got your degree from D.G Patil or A.B vidyalaya wont make a difference.

The reason why im asking to give focus on a stream rather than college is because of the passion which a student may have for a particular stream of his/her choice. The student may study with more passion for a stream they like rather than something that they got based only on their merit score. I got Electrical where i really wanted Computers, and to this day i wish i could have gotten COMP. I never enjoyed studying the Electrical subjects and because of that i ended up with a big pile of KTs.

4.CROWD AND CAMPUS

Crowd, friends of your same social level will eventually make your years in that college either worthy to remember or a total nightmare. If you are not having fun outside of class, you will never have fun studying also.You need to have good friends to bunk lectures together with, and also be able to study with them at the same time.

It took me many days to adjust to my new engineering college, as i just couldn’t find anyone to hangout with, i was scared i might just leave the college as i was having such a bad time. finally after 5 days i met this girl in class and we became great friends, after that i started to love the college and it became good fun even attending lectures.
Of course sadly later on, i got a drop and she passed on, but i made better friends in the next batch and studied well to clear my backlog. One thing in this context i would like to add is that while having harmless fun is ok, avoid getting into a relationship as it almost means a certain drop. I have seen it happen to 2 of my female friends. It is too big a distraction, and Engineering is way too difficult to be given a part time commitment.

The atmosphere and people around you can make your engineering experience a whole lot more fun. Don’t be afraid to visit a few campuses and check out the vibe of the college before the rounds start.See if you think you would be able to fit in there and then note it down in your probable list of colleges you would like to put down in your form for the CAP rounds.

 

5.How to choose an engineering college-PLACEMENTS

One of the most important aspects to look out for when you are choosing the right engineering college is to see how good the placement cell of the college is.For example in my college,when i was in final year B.E. we got only one call center that had come for recruitment for my electrical branch.I was lucky to get an offer from them – which i never joined.It was a Rs.25000 a month for voice process.

One more company had come for some other branch but as far as electrical was concerned,this was our only option.

This was a poor placement process,and maybe the companies did not want to recruit from us that time was because our ranking was not so good.Now our campus and infrastructure is much better and looking at our placement cell it seems we get bigger names coming to recruit.

Above is the placements for VJTI college,Mumbai.

 

Placement data for D. J Sanghvi Mumbai

 

6.FEES

Fees of any engineering college differ depending on many factors.Firstly there are separate fees if the college is private or government. Also if you are looking for a free or paid seat this will change.

There are also different categories like if you are from General,OBC or SC/ST there will be a different fee structure so keep these things in mind.

Approximate FEES for open category – Rs.80,000 per year

Approximate FEES for OBC category – Rs.48,000 per year

Approximate FEES for SC/ST cateogry – Between Rs.10,000 – Rs.15000 per year

 

7.AMENITIES

Some of the amenities that you need to check for while choosing an engineering college is:

1.Library facility

2.Sports facilities and swimming pool – if any

3.Big Campus

4.Audio Visual equipment,media projectors,large screens

5.Wifi facility all over the campus

6.Hostel Accommodation with enough capacity

7.Sports Facilities and grounds

College Festivals

9.Plant and industrial visits

8.ACCREDITATION

There are three main types of accreditation for engineering colleges in India.These are:

1.NAAC – National Assessment and Accreditation council is used mainly for autonomous institutions.

2.NBA

3.AICTE

Out of these the best one to choose is those colleges that have an accreditation of AICTE or All India Council for Technical Education.Most of the colleges affiliated to Mumbai University and DTE – Directorate of Technical Education have this rating.

These colleges are further rated as A,B,C given by the AICTE and this is based on exam performance result at university level,infrastructure,campus and other factors.

Of course to get admission into an A grade college will need maximum PCM marks,but these seats get filled up fast.Remember that doing your B.E degree from an A,B or C grade college will not give any weight-age to your university degree in the end,only from  placements and infrastructure point of view it will.

9.SCHOLARSHIP

Some engineering colleges have tie ups with corporate that award students with scholarship money.This scholarship is given on a monthly basis for the four years.It ranges from Rs.500 per month to Rs.3500 per month and in many cases increases in the fourth and final year.

The drawback of some of these scholarships is that it is not awarded to students that are above a certain income level.

Famous engineering scholarships are given by ONGC,Siemens,NTPC and the Birla Group

10.DEGREE GIVEN

Depending on whether the college is affiliated to a state university,deemed university or is itself an autonomous university gives you an indication of whether it will give you a B.E Bachelor of Engineering,B.Tech – Bachelor of Technology or Diploma in Engineering.

11.PAPER CHECKING

This is a very important point and should be in the top 5 of this list.Before choosing the right engineering college,you need to find out from past students of that college how the professors check the papers.

From my experience,it happens in many ! grade colleges,that many people pass and the professors correct the paper leniently.

This is because:

If many students fail in a particular subjects and since all marks are submitted to the  State University,that college will show an overall poor result.

The basis of Accreditation as seen in point no 8 is partly due to students results.If the overall result of a college goes down,then the rating also for that college will reduce.

Therefore according to me,higher rated college also have easier paper checking so that the overall passing percentage is high.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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